Everybody Wants To Be Naked…And Famous…

Spencer Tunick has been using the live nude in site specific installations since 1992. From 1994 Spencer has organised over 75 photo shoots at temporary sites both in the United States and abroad. Spencer uses hundreds or thousands of volunteers and his photographs become a record of these events. the individuals, all naked, as a group, metamorphose into a new shape. They extend into and upon the landscape and become part of it. the group do not underscore sexuality but become an abstraction that challenge or reconfigure the viewers ideas about nudity and privacy.

Much of Spencer’s work touches upon and highlights global issues such as this first photograph which was produced in collaboration with Greenpeace in 2007 and was taken to highlight global warming. This was taken on Switzerland’s Aletsch Glacier.

Perhaps I am a bit biased with my liking for Spencer’s work, after all, I did take part in one of his latest pieces of work in August 2010 at the Big Chill Festival! (I was a yellow person! And , yes, before you ask, we were all naked and body painted!!!!) It was a rather warm morning at 7.00am when all the volunteers gathered and with no real idea of what was happening apart from taking part in a Spencer Tunick installation. We were split into groups and given tubs of body paint and asked to cover ourselves and the person beside us in it. We were then led to a “secret location” which turned out to be a field right behind the main stage! Spencer was really good at directing us in what he wanted and knew what he wanted from the shoot! It was amazing to be able to take part in a piece of artwork by one of my favourite photographer/artists.

Spencer’s latest work, as with most of his, is political and statement making. Spencer wanted to highlight the effects that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was having on the environment.

To see more work by Spencer please go to his website www.spencertunick.com/

Post navigation

2 thoughts on “Everybody Wants To Be Naked…And Famous…”

I really liked what you wrote about him, he is the innovator and pioneering photographer as far as large nude crowds are concerned. And I appreciate any work involving nudity but that, unlike most everything else out there, do not focus on sexuality, and instead focus on a socio-political message